Shameless Plug

In the summer of last year, Microsoft hired advertising agency 4orty2wo to promote one of their flagship XBox sequels: Halo 2. The agency specializes in what they call alternate reality games (ARGs), a form of interactive mystery which draws people into a narrative via hidden clues and cryptic messages. Since the first campaign was so successful, Microsoft has gone and partnered with them again, this time to promote the successor to the XBox, (code?)named XBox 360.

The website, ourcolony.net, promotes users to form groups, or colonies, in order to gain points and compete with other colonies by answering riddles and discovering Easter eggs on the site itself, like a possible in-game screen capture of a Ferrari 360 Modena (XBox 360, get it?) from the as-of-yet unannounced Project Gotham Racing 3. Points are also awards to the colonies based upon the number of people in the colony. This form of marketing is known as 'viral marketing' because the advertising firm doesn't do a thing after setting up the site. Those that play want to win, and as a result, write about their teams on message boards and web logs in hopes that they can recruit members and as a result, end up speading the word.

Right now, TeamTrojan is ranked about 380 out of nearly 3000 teams, but we need more members. You would be signing up not only to help the cause, but also to compete with the other teams for prizes such as t-shirts and free games. Last summer, when the game promoting Halo 2 came to end, Microsoft invited nearly a thousand of the top-ranking players to a private play test nearly a week before the game was released to the public.

Sound like fun? Here's what to do:

1. Go to www.ourcolony.net
2. Enter the word play in the box and click on the ant.
   
3. Select 'join existing colony'.
4. Enter the password 26364616 in the box.
5. Fill out your information (no email is asked for).
6. Enter the numbers in red in the box below directly below.
7. Welcome to TeamTrojan!

Each day there is a new riddle to solve, which we get points for solving, so check back to join in the fun. And remember, the more people that join, the more points we all get, so direct your friends to this entry when they need instructions on what to do to start playing.

Have fun!